Voltron: Elite Hunter
by The Dungeon Crawler
Summary: A bounty hunter finds himself in an unknown place. While here, he will help a certain group defeat a certain empire. It's not like he's in a hurry to come back.
1. Chapter 1

"He's too quick! AAA-" *BOOM*

"We're down to two fighters! How can we lose so many against a single ship!?"

"We can't track him sir, he's too fast!"

"We don't have time for this. We have to leave now!"

"You are going nowhere, you SOBs!"

BOOM! Another fighter down.

If there was something that everyone outside the Imperial Territories feared in the Galaxies, that would be the Imperial Cutter. Compared to the behemoths that were the Imperator-class Interdictors and other capital ships they were small, practically unarmored and completely unarmed. The problem was that, compared to ships smaller than corvettes, and even some light frigates, it was a monster: it was heavily armed, pretty damn fast for a ship of that size (though still slower than fighters and other small ships), its crew was composed of veterans of operations against piracy and other threats, and its shields were among the strongest of the Human Space (for ships comparable in size of course). The greatest threat from a Cutter, thought, was the small complement of thirty two Imperial Fighters that it could harbor on its hangar. These ships were small and carried just a pair of pulse lasers or plasma repeaters (the first did not require material ammo and dealed increased damage to shielding systems, and the second dealed both kinetic and thermal damage at the cost of needing ammo, although it had more 'rounds' than ballistic weapons of similar role, making it a versatile weapon), but they were also one of the fastest, and unmatched all other ships in terms of maneuverability.

That combination of firepower, strength and strikecraft made it one of the most succesfull products of Gutamaya Corporation, so succesful that, like the other models, they had lasted for over a thousand years in the Imperial Navy, and the bane of small ships unaligned to the Achenar Empire that were foolish enought to agitate them.

Of course, that power was next to useless when you were chasing a ship six times smaller than yours and much faster than that, so fast that even your ship-launched fighters are snails compared to it. Oh, and that ship could also literally fly circles around your behemoth because, as fast as it was, it was really slow to turn, as Commander Erik of the Pilots Federation and his Eagle could attest. And don't count on your Imperial Fighters to protect you: his Eagle MkXII outmatches them in everything except maneuverability (size included).

Our friend Erik, a bounty hunter and member of the Pilots Federation, usually worked for the Alliance, the Federation, the Xi'an Empire or the Banu Protectorate (they weren't completely friendly with the independent systems, but they went along much better with them than with the Empire or some independent systems, and of course, the Vanduul and the Thargoids. He'll never work for any of those pirates and imps), but he was, right now, occupied fighting a Cutter that had the bad fortune of carrying a man that the Alliance brass wanted dead (in this case, it was a Tevarin criminal that had information about the Alliances iconic Concordia Carrier concerning its shielding system, and the Allies didn't want it to land on the hands of someone that could curb stomp them if they wanted to; the Vanduul, as vicious and numerous as they were, were practically newts compared to the dinosaur that was the Empire. Their famous victory over both Federation and Empire was because they had already fought a war between each other), and unfortunately for them, Erik was one of the best bounty hunters out there.

And his Eagle, a green beauty he bought a couple years ago, was armed with autocannons (they had a higher fire rate than cannons, but slower than multicannons) and a plasma accelerator (basically a small plasma cannon that shoots slower than any other but packs a really mean punch, in the range of railguns and other heavy weapons). Although the ship's mark was brand new, the class was millenial, but as the saying says: 'If it ain't broken, don't fix it'.

Those weapons could damage and, eventually, destroy a Gutamaya Cutter (and all other non-capital ships for that matter). Missiles were a better option, but he didn't have any left (and the accelerator was a good replacement anyway).

"Damn, I never got tired of seeing that." Muttered Erik while watching one of the three extant fighters disintegrate under concentrated coilgun fire. "Welp, I expected more from the 'Empire's best'." He said in a mocking tone through communications to the Cutter. Insulting your enemy through comms wasn't honorable, but he wasn't either.

Usually he wasn't this cocky (or this cruel for that matter, what with insulting them while blowing them up) towards the ones he was supossed to kill, but this Cutter in particular had been running from him for quite some time, and he wasn't exactly flowing in credits to pay for the ammo (he had a fabricator, but he wasn't going to spend hours mining asteroids just to make a dozen rounds per hour when he could get his guns full by a fair price in any station). And that was not counting the mercenaries that ambushed him once... plus the fact that they weren't near an station meant that he could get stranded (he had a Fuel Scoop and a fabricator for his guns, but not all stars were scoopable and not all asteroids had minerals inside them). But he had never let a bounty escape him before, and he had escaped many situations like this one. He only needed to conserve the fuel, blow the damn thing, and then he could go to the nearest station to resupply, brag about his kill and get his reward.

It was then when the Cutter's captain spoke through comms.

"You will regret this!" Said the captain in a furious voice.

"What, killing you? You shouldn't have picked up that Tev." Responded Erik while putting his index finger in the PA trigger.

"The Emperor...!" Whatever the imperial was going to say was replaced by an scream of horror when he (and the Tevarin and the other crewmembers at the bridge) saw a large bolt of plasma coming right at the cabin. The ship (and the remaining fighter, whose pilot didn't want to leave his comrades), unable to raise its shields, exploded in a giant ball of fire.

Another Cutter for the kill count!

"And I'm a bit richer." Said Erik. He turned his head to the right, and seeing that he had enough fuel to move, put the coordinates of the nearest scoopable star on the computer and and prepared to activate the FSD.

And then something happened.

Something really, really weird happened... in the form of a whirling vortex several dozen yards wide that appeared suddenly in front of his ship... just when he started the FSD.

"FRAA...!" Screamed Erik before the sudden movements made him hit his forehead on the controls, knocking him out. While he was in the galaxy of dreams, his ship, and what was left of the Imperials, was swallowed by the vortex.

* * *

When Erik woke up, the 'jump' had finally ended.

"Damn that hurt... Where the hell am I?" Said Erik while inspecting the ship systems, sighing in relief seeing that he still had fuel and some ammunition left for his weapons.

Those were the good news.

The bad news were that the Eagle's HUD was, except the weapon systems, offline: No shield meter, no ship hologram, no scanner... not even the damn compass was online! That meant that, for the moment, he was a sitting duck. In space.

The worst position for a bounty hunter of some reknown to be.

"Work dammit!" Screamed Erik while slamming the console. He knew it would go online again (all ships could restart as long as their primary systems were untouched), but he didn't like floating in the vacuum of space, especially in an unknown place. Also, oxygen and food. He needed oxygen and food to live. "I don't want to starve in the middle of nowhere! Or asphyxiate for that matter!"

While slamming the console, Erik accidentaly activated the left autocannon , firing a barrage. Normally he wouldn't pay it any mind, but when he saw where the hypersonic slugs flied to, an Earth-like planet (water, large continents, etc), he gave a sigh of relief (and punched himself in the jaw for not seeing it). He was saved! Even if it wasn't inhabited, it was still a planet, and as long as it was one compatible with humans (and banu, xi'an and some others) and had edible wildlifle and plants, he would'nt care. The ammunition problem could wait. Of course, there was the other issue.

After the ship main systems came back online, Erik flied around the planet until he found the local star, approaching it and using his scoop to gather helium to transform it into fuel. When he saw the fuel gauge full, he directed the ship towards the planet, especifically the region where the rounds had probably landed. He had to made sure that he didn't accidentally killed people, and besides, something compelled him to go there.

When he penetrated the planet's atmosphere, the Eagle's scanners (and his own experience with planets) confirmed that, indeed, this was an Earth-like world: good oxygen/carbon dioxide, green plants (and, well, plants)... And the weather was perfect for a landing: clear skies, the sun shining, birds (or animals resembling them) flying, an energy projectile about to hit his ship...

WHAT THE HELL!? "What the hell!" Cried Erik just before said laser bolt hit its mark: his Eagle. The ship (and by extension, him) shook violently, but the infamous weakness of the Eagle series (their nonexistent hulls and shields) was, fortunately, not present on his own thanks to him spending quite a lot of moola in enhaced bulkheads and hull (and it wasn't slowed down because he also bought a more powerful engine and thrusters) and the most expensive shield generator that a bounty hunter could get his hands on. Those previous actions had just saved his ship and ass.

Of course, it would take his skills as a fighter pilot to evade the other lasers that came from the same direction the first one came. Unfortunately for whoever the shooter was, the Eagle MkXII was one of the most maneuverable ships larger than a Sidewinder.

"I shouldn't have slammed the controls." Sighed Erik while dodging the incoming lasers (he knew that, if it was slower than light and not a beam, it was a plasma bolt or a particle beam, or even a tracer, but like many others in the Milky Way Galaxy, he just called them lasers, even with the existance of pulse and beam lasers). He then grinned. "Well, let's see if this guy likes hypersonic bullets!" And with that he flied the Eagle towards the point in the ground where he was being shot from.

But, rather than an AA battery, an automated turret, or even a man portable laser cannon (man portable as in RPG-sized), he was being shot at by... a giant, blue, mechanical cat with an energy weapon instead of a tail tip? In front of a medieval-looking (upon a brief inspection, it appeared that the cat was in said castle's courtyard) castle that was suspended on a stone pillar?

"What the hell..." Muttered the bounty hunter just before the cat blasted blasted his shields again with its tail, forcing him to maneuver again until they recharged. "Damn it! Alright then you fracking cat!" He put the fighter in hover and, seeing that the cat had finally stopped firing (maybe its weapon was munition-based like plasma, or it overheated; the cat itself was sitting on its haunches like a real feline), fired his autocannons...

DAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKA

...and frowned when he saw that, while the cat did roar in pain and crouched when the shells hit its head, its armor wasn't even dented.

He growled, and was about to fire the plasma accelerator when he saw a group of people come out of the castle and run towards the lion. He couldn't see them well from that distance and height, but they were humanoid (four limbs, head, bipedal, much, much smaller than the cat...), and one of them was a female with long, curly, silver hair (or a guy that liked his hair long, who knows).

Fortunately, he was a bounty hunter, and no bounty hunter worth their title would forget to install a long-range camera on their helmet to see from quite the distance if the fat guy who's eating a sandwich in some random bar on a

station is their quarry. He activated it and inspected the group.

Five of them were humans (the tallest one, not as tall as him but tall nonetheless, and who had a scar across his nose appeared to be asian, which was weird because his hair was mostly white with a black tuff; the largest overall looked had dark skin, black hair and thick eyebrows; and the rest he didn't know, but one, light brown-haired and with glasses, was pretty short compared to the rest. Plus, the tallest one appeared to be the only adult, probably on his twenties like Erik), but the other two (a redheaded, moustachioed man on his fifties at least and a girl no much older than the teenagers), though much more humanoid than Vanduul and other alien species, weren't exactly human. Their ears (long and pointed at the top) were a dead giveaway, but they also had colored marks on their cheeks that looked natural instead of tatooed, and their pupils had colored specks in the center. With all that they were still the most human-like aliens he had ever seen (discounting the ears and the marks of course).

The man wasn't really that remarkable though (and with that moustache, he reminded him of a friend of his, a 7 feet tall explorer from Andromeda with jagged teeth and a heart of gold who had highlander ancestors). It was the girl that took his eyes.

She was, unlike her fellow alien, brown skinned, with long and curly silver hair (said before) that reached her hips, and she had small sickle-shaped marks on her cheekbones (again, said before). On her forehead rested a golden circlet that had a teal jewel in the center, and she wore a pair of purple earrings that dangled from her ears... somehow. She was dressed in a formal-looking dress which was primarily white and blue, accented with pink, gold and a lighter shade of blue. Her wrists had golden bracelets on them, and a blue cape with pink interior dangled from her shoulders; and finally, here eyes were a vibrant lavender. All in all, not bad.

Her overall image meant she was royalty or nobility (gut instinct on those ones; she didn't strike Erik as a hooker); the man was probably some advisor or butler then, maybe even a bodyguard of sorts. But what were the humans?

Now that he was looking more closely at them, he discovered that their clothes were, how to spell it, quite out of date. The scarred guy had an implant instead of a right arm, but everything else (his and the other's clothes) looked quite out of date. As in, at the very least a thousand years out of date (he knew quite a lot of Earth history. When someone asked him why did he learn that, he simply said he had his reasons).

Also, he didn't realize this before, but he could see now that all of them (especially the olive skinned, brown haired older teenager) were looking at his Eagle with awe (the short one and the average one), shock (the tall one) and even fear (in the case of the royals and the big one); the last teen, a lean, black haired teenager with blue-gray eyes, just glared at it, but even then you could see surprise on his eyes.

Erik was confused by this. Sure, the Eagle line of ships were spectacular looking, what with being one of the few ships made by Core Dynamics with actual functional wings and all... but it was as if these people had never seen a starfighter before in their lives (he could recognize that look anywhere. He had it the first time he saw his first, but he was a toddler then, not a teenager).

A growl from the mechanical cat made him realize that he had involuntarily aimed his weapons at the group (and making nearly all of them recoil in fear). He promptly turned the ship away from them, which made the cat stop its growling.

Its attitude made Erik think that maybe it was some kind of defense robot. Defense robot...

And now that he was near ground and not flying and dodging lasers, he could see several holes in the castle's roof that were already there before the fight. Holes made by something really fast hitting the ground. Like autocannon rounds.

Erik helmetpalmed.

"I'm a damn idiot." He muttered, realizing that the cat attacked him because the shells had hit the building.

Seeing that the robot wasn't doing anything, and that the people below hadn't moved, Erik chose to land the ship. Better to apologize to the locals before the damn thing decided to aim better.

Without even making a thud, the Eagle landed in front of the robotic feline. Before leaving the ship, Erik exchanged his flying suit for his armor set, whose helmet had tinted visors (so that people he didn't like couldn't recognize him when he had his helmet on) and grabbed three weapons from his small but stashed gun rack (a simple Archlight energy pistol for his belt, a 10 mm SMG that shot 700 rounds per minute at a speed of 2.2 kilometers per second on his back, and a Gallant energy rifle that he would hold on his hands). He then walked down the stairs and got out of the ship.

The two parties stared at each other, the group with wariness (especially the 'elves', the large boy and the short kid, who were eyeing his weapon with some apprehension), Erik with calculating eyes. Well, not really, he was just staring at them, but his helmet wasn't exactly friendly-looking (it was just the normal helmet that came with the set, but from an angle the slots had a glaring expression, giving the sensation that it was always frowning. Also, it obviously had several hidden upgrades, being a bounty hunter helmet after all). Him being over two meters tall, built like a destroyer and wearing DustUp Medium Armor (which was already intimidating to begin with) colored in black surely made him look quite intimidating to the group.

The group started to whisper between each other, not realizing that they did it rather loudly (and even though Erik had a good hearing, they weren't exactly close).

"Guys, what do we do? He hasn't moved an inch!" That was the big guy.

"Hunk, how do you know it's a he? For all we know it could be a robot!" The small one.

"He's too... manly to be a girl!"

"Well, now that you say it, he kinda looks like a he with that build."

"Are you guys seriously questioning the gender of an alien who may or may not try to kill us!?"

At that moment, tired of doing nothing, Erik spoke.

"You know, wondering if someone could kill you while said someone is hearing you might end with that someone killing you." Said the bounty hunter, making the group jump at the sudeness of his voice. He continued "And yes, I'm a guy. But..." He stopped speaking when he saw the girl stomp towards him, anger on her face. When the girl got close (a couple feet) to him, she started to poke on his chestplate in an angry manner.

"You are one who attacked us!" She exclaimed while continuing to poke him, flaggerbasting him by her fast change of state of mood. Besides, others would had grabbed her hand, but she was right to be angry at him. Also, giant robotic cat. Although...

"Lady" He said while gently pushing her hand away. ", I'm genuinely sorry for the damage, but it was an accident. And you "he said to the humans, walking towards them and ignoring the now fuming girl. ", I need to ask you something."

"Questions!?" Yelled the moustachioed man while doing the exact same thing as the girl. "You just damaged the master piece of my grandfather!"

Erik wanted to test something: where the aliens and the humans friends or allies?

"Frack off!" He exclaimed, making sure he sounded angry. With that he headbutted the man, breaking his nose and knocking him out.

"Coran!" Screamed the girl behind him.

"Hey!"

"Let's get him!" Yelled the brown head; the five ran at him and jumped, making him drop the rifle and unable to grab his other weapons.

Yep, definitely allies or friends.

Unfortunately for them, he was a hardened bounty hunter born on a high gravity world, and they were just a man and four teens.

With a shout of (faked) anger, he pushed them off him and...

Well, it wasn't really a fight. The oldest got his prosthetic-bearing arm dislocated (Erik actually wanted to rip it off, but figured that it would be too much; he also noted that, unlike the teens, he knew how to fight. Too bad that the bounty hunter knew how to fight too, especially against 8 feet tall knife-obsessed barbarians and 6 feet tall pirates of different races), the chubby one was used to pin the brown head (making an amusing sight), the black haired boy ended up with a dislocated leg (he was a fighting one, he'd give him that), and the shortest got simply cuffed with energy cuffs (which made him gasp in awe. What?).

The cat, seeing its friends in danger, roared in anger. Lesser beings would have soiled their pants, but Erik had killed all sorts of giant monsters and animals before, and stared one of the bigger ones (while drunk that is). Also, he knew what was the natural enemy of the cat. And wanted to test something again.

"RAWR RAWR RAWR!" Barked Erik at the robot while firing at its head, making it rear back in fright (its 'eyes' even widened!) and fall on its back, making the courtyard tremble with its weight.

What moron programs its automatons in a way that they get scared by something that, to them, it's a flea?

The girl, which he had ignored, jumped at his back and tried to choke him with surprising strength for someone of her size (which still didn't help because she wasn't neither a Vanduul or someone from a high gravity world, nor wearing power armor), but an elbow to the gut (45th century folks! Gender equality! Of course, he had to restrain himself to not break her ribs by accident) made quick work of her.

Seeing that his adversaries were incapacitated, he did the only thing he could do: apologize.

He approached the 'princess', who stared fearfully at him, crouched before her and... helped her up.

"Sorry for the elbowing, but I don't like women jumping on me in the back." He said while helping her stand. Afterwards he approached the guy whose arm he dislocated and, ignoring his warnings, put it back in place, and the same for the dark haired boy's leg. "Well, that should do it!"

"What about my nose!" Said the red head. He was promptly shut by a patch on his face that covered his nose and eyes, but not his mouth. "Nevermind, take it off, I can't breathe!"

"Wanna get a broken face? Breathe through your mouth!" He promptly shut up. "Now" Said Erik while taking off his helmet, showing the group a male human with black eyes and a short but thick, red beard and a rugged face in general on his early twenties. ", could you please tell me what year is?"

* * *

"Let me get this straight. It's the year 2056, humanity hasn't even colonized Luna Mars, the Belt or the moons yet still suffered World War 3, has spacecraft fast enough to go to Pluto and back in two months, there's some madman hellbent on conquering the universe and capture five cats..."

"Lionf!" Interrupted Coran, still holding a grudge over getting his nose broken and his face covered with a patch he still had.

"No mane, so cats. Five giant cats that combine to form a giant mech that is supossedly the most powerful warrior in the universe and that is the only hope for victory against said madman."

"Yeah, pretty much." Replied Keith.

After healing the wounded, Erik apologized for that and for damaging the Castle of Lions (weird name, like calling a Orion Cruiser for Battle), telling them that it was an accident born of frustration (because it was). They accepted (to his surprise) and told him their names (the humans were called Takashi Shirogame, or Shiro for short, Pidge Gunderson, Keith, Lance and Hunk, and the aliens, whose species were called Alteans, Princess Allura and her advisor Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe (Pretty human surnames for an alien) and that of the planet (Arus). Right now they were 'exchanging' information in the bridge (the Castle was also a ship. Go figure).

The humans had been brought to the Castle by the blue cat (or as they called it, lion) when they had discovered it on Earth (which was another big change; the first sign of alien life ever found was discovered in Mars, and by then the planet already had a population of more than a billion in the 24th century. Heck, it wasn't even that great for a discovery, just a computer that was in fact primitive by the time it was found), but when they left the planet they got chased through the system by a ship belonging to the Galra Empire, an entity that 'controlled the universe'. Good luck trying to control one of the few things that is constantly growing.

"We told you stuff, now you tell us stuff, one by one! Me first!" Exclaimed Hunk while raising his arm. Him (and pretty much everyone, especially Shiro and Pidge) were for some reason amazed that he had a starship. "From what date do you come from?

"It was, well is... Let me see my watch. 6-21-4457. Nearly 2350 years from now on."

"Wow! You're even further than Futurama!" Grinned Hunk in awe.

It was Pidge's turn.

"Are there aliens in your dimension?" It turned out that the 'dimension' in which they were Earth was both less advanced than his own (and the colonization thing was only the first example) and, amongst other things, their WW3 was a much less catastrophic conflict. For starters, they didn't use particle beams nor 'Rods of God' (which was another example of their less developed technology).

"Yeah, and many, but most of them haven't even invented the wheel: less than a hundred species have any kind of faster than light travel nor complete control over their territory, not counting humanity. Or the Tevarin."

"Why not the Tevarin?" Asked Allura.

"Over a thousand years ago ,hey attacked a colony of the Alliance, the Alliance defeated them, blew up their planets, forced the survivors to join the Federation or wander through space. Moving on!" He said when he saw the horrified expression in the princess face. Keith's arm sprung up. "Yes?"

"If you guys have starfighters, faster than light travel, lasers and all that, why do you still use bullets?" He was refering to his SMG and the fact that his Eagle had kinetic cannons.

"Why not? It's not like lasers can blow heads off or tear arms off, and solid projectiles can have different cores, like incendiary, corrosive, armour-piercing... Also, most of the time they do more damage to armor than energy weapons, though the inverse is true with energy weapons draining shields faster than guns. Of course, there's the fact that technically our guns aren't guns anymore because they stopped needing gunpowder a long time a go: all of our guns are mass drivers, and most ship-based coilguns, which are autocannons, can shoot projectiles up to 90 miles per second, while weapons used mainly on planets have a speed limit of 15 miles due to the atmosphere."

"Holy crow..." Muttered Hunk.

"And those are coilguns, railguns are even faster. The strongest railgun-propelled slug managed a speed of 0.5c, with a yield of over 50 teratons. There's no ship that can survive the impact of that thing, and I'm talking about 3 miles long behemoths. Hell, they can even destroy moon sized objects with just one glacing shot."

"HOLY CROW!" Yelled Hunk.

"Why would you have such destructive power?" Breathed Allura.

"War. The only thing that all sentient species have in common is that they practice or had practiced war at some point, and that we most of the time distrust each other, with some exceptions. And the more destructive your weapons, the more probabilities you have of winning, or at least to coerce the others to sit on the negotiation table." Though the second statement was true, the first one was a total lie: Super MACs coul be (and from time to time ended up doing it) used to destroy the planet they were supossed to protect. "Besides, those railguns are property of the Federation, which is very protective of its weapon prints, so they are in good hands; there's also the fact that it's used mostly for planetary defense, since it's nearly useless for bombardment." NO. "Yes Princess?"

"Excuse me but that's not true." Replied Allura angrily. "Our civilization, Altea, is... was peaceful and..."

"If you were peaceful, then why did you make five giant robotic cats that have lasers on their tails and mouths and that can form up to make an, apparently, incredibly powerful robot?"

"The Lions and Voltron were made to protect the universe!"

"The SMAC was made to protect planets yet it has the power to destroy them, but it doesn't. And other, even more powerful weapons were made as nuclear deterrent, not to actually do their job. Yes Shiro?"

"With what you just said... how many factions does your galaxy have?"

"Well, there are quite a lot of both human and alien powers, but the ones that have the most power amongst the galaxies are the Federation, the Achenar Empire, the Alliance, the Banu Republic, the Thargoid Collectivity, the Xi'An Empire, and for some people like me, the Federation of Pilots, which as the name im..."

"Did you said 'galaxies'?" Interrupted Pidge, eyes wide in awe.

"Yep, 8 of them, though only because they are close enough to each other. A long time ago we could get to them in a couple of days, but when the fuel that allowed us to reach other galaxies, a Thargoid substance called Quirium, depleted, we resorted to slower drives. Nowadays we solved that problem; admitedly, the journeys to other galaxies still take over two weeks instead of a couple of days, and only capital-sized ships, but it's better than spending months in Hyperspace."

"Why don't you ask the Thargoids for more?"

"First, they hate anyone that is not a Thargoid with a passion, only willing to cooperate with other species to a certain point; second, who do you think exhausted the Quirium first? They invaded the Milky Way a second time just to see if we still had Quirium. And to get revenge on the Milky Way, in particular the Federation, because they catched a virus on the first contact that drove them nearly extinct. In the end they failed, and badly."

"Oh."

It was then Coran's turn.

"Yes Coran?" Asked Erik to the altean while he removed the patch from his face, surprised at its healing capacities.

"Well, first off, this thing is amazing! Second, can I ask two questions?"

"Sure."

"First, what did you do in your original universe? Second, which is more inportant, HOW did you get here?"

"You're right!" Exclaimed Hunk.

"Now that you mention it..." Muttered Shiro.

It was at that moment that Erik realized that he forgot to tell them that.

"Damn I forgot about that. I somehow ended here due to some kind of vortex that sucked me while I was working."

"Working?"

"Curbstomping a 200 meters long imperial corvette and sixteen of the most maneuverable ships of the known territories who had the misfortune of holding my quarry."

"Quarry?" Said Pidge puzzled.

"He's a bounty hunter!" Exclaimed Hunk excitedly. He then started to spew questions like a machine gun. "Do you use a jetpack? How many bounties did you catch? Is that a flamethrower in your wrist? Do you come from a culture of space warriors!? Are you a clone!? Is that... !?"

"Hey hey hey, stop it big guy!" Interrupted Erik. Ironic, considering that he was taller and probably heavier. "Where did you get those questions from?"

"Star Wars, the most awesome space opera of all time!" Said Hunk.

"Pff, Star Wars is nice, but Middle Earth is still better!" Scoffed Lance.

"Star Wars is still waaay cooler!" Replied Hunk. "Middle Earth is bound to a single planet instea of a galaxy, and even a hundred years after the War of the Ring they haven't advanced on anything: no cannons, no printing press, and nothing like that! Also, lasers and giant ships!"

"Their games are still junk!"

"Blame Universal, not Disney!"

"Of course I'm not going to blame Disney, it no longer exist!"

Suddenly, an alarm blared. The nearby console, which was holographic, gained a red coloration.

"What the hell is that?" Asked Erik.

"Remember the part where we mention a madman?" Replied Coran, at which Erik nodded; at that moment, the console showed a purple colored ship (which looked kinda similar to a Vanduul capital ship, but only kinda). "That's one his ships. And it's not precisely a diplomatic vessel."

"I can see that."

"How did he find us!?" Exclaimed Allura, holding non-previously seen mice on her hands. Seriously, where those thing in her hands before?

"I'm not sure" Replied Lance ", but I bet it's Keith's fault."

"Before we get to more insults" Interrupted Erik, knowing what was coming ", why don't you tell me technical stuff of the Galra ship, Coran?"

"Well, this model is different, but the ships from our time usually had high-powered cannons as main armament..."

"Kinetic or energy based?

"Energy of course. No one would use primitive weapons such as slugs as ship armaments. And besides, a particle barrier can stop matter anyway if it's up and working."

"But can this particle barrier stop a 100 feet fighter from passing through it at low speed and blowing the frack out of the bridge of the ship with both autocannons and plasma cannons?"

"Well, now that you say it, particle barriers weren't designed to stop ships passing through them and..." Inquired Coran before interrupting himself. "Wait a minute..."

"You can't be serious!" Exclaimed Shiro in disbelief. "You can't expect to win against a ship of that size with your fighter!"

"And why would you do that? We just met."

"First, I owe you one since I could have killed you either holding the autocannon trigger or accidentally pressing the plasma accelerator, which is way nastier than the guns. Second... well, there's no second reason that I can think of except being nice. I could ask you to tell me if the vortex could come back, but I doubt you know anything about it." The last part was directed at Coran.

"Actually... yes, you're right, I know nothing about the wormhole that brought you here." Admited Coran. "What I _do_ now is that the ship will probably arrive in, two, maybe three days.", he said while using three fingers.

"Good, let them come!" Said Allura in a triumphant tone.

"What?" Said Erik.

"WHAT!?" Exclaimed the rest.

"By the they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron and together, we'll destroy Zarkon's empire!

"You plan do destroy an intergalactic empire with just one robot, even if it's a big one, which is not terribly big at that?"

"As I said before, Voltron is the most powerful warrior in the universe. Invincible" Said Allura in a proud tone.

"Yeah, but last I remember, the _lions_ aren't, judging by the fact that my _primitive autocannons_ " he said the last part at Coran. ", hurt Big Blue, and I'm pretty sure that my plasma cannon could decapitate her."

"The lions only need to combine to form Voltron."

"Then what happens if one of the lions is destroyed? Granted, it would still form Voltron, but it wouldn't have full combat capacity. Or a limb, or its head for that matter."

"Well, when you say that..." Admitte Allura in a sheepish tone.

"You're starting to scare us with that!" Cried Hunk; the others agreeed with him

"Sorry, its' just that I find difficult to believe that a single robot, no matter how big, can fight off an intergalactic civilization on its own. Also, last time I checked, there was only lion."

"Don't worry, we know how to find the rest."

After that she led them to a different room, larger than the one they were before and with a giant crystal in the center. Allura then positioned herself under the crystal; she then closed her eyes and a light came down from the crystal to her.

"What's happening?" Asked Eric to Coran.

"King Alfor connected the lions to Allura's lifeforce." Explained Coran. "She alone is the key to the..."

"Wait wait wait wait, did you just say 'lifeforce'?" Said and incredulous Erik.

"Yes?"

Before Erik could continue, Allura opened her eyes. Suddenly, the group was surrounded by countless pecks of light, each of them covered by a mark. Erik hummed in interest when he realized that it was a star map, albeit an exotic one. The other humans, on the other hand, gasped in awe. Considering that they hadn't reached Alpha Centauri even without FTL (considering they took only one month to get to Kerberos, it would have took them over 8 years to reach the system, which was still pretty damn fast for a pre-FTL species), their reaction was appropiate.

What did fascinate him was the fact that so many galaxies were small. As in, many of them were smaller than any of the 8 Galaxies back home.

"These are coordinates!" Said Pidge. Soon, Earth passed in fron of Erik, who whistled. "The Black Lion looks like its on the same location as the Blue Lion!"

"Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little cage!" Said Coran. That irked Eric.

"That's rich given that _your_ brains didn't come up with a way to stop kinetic weapons from destroying your ships or breaching your shields!"

"Excuse, we didn't know of anyone that had created cannons able to fire slugs the size of small moons at half the speed of light! At most large meteors or... well, not fast and small ships!" Exclaimed Coran. Allura, fearing a fight might break out (with a very hurt Coran), interrupted them.

"Very observant! That's because the Black Lion is in the Castle."

"To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon's hands, King Alfor locket it in the Castle" Said Coran, who decided that he didn't want another patch on his face (or worse). "It can only be freed if the other Lions are present."

She then started to speak about the teens and Shiro and their connection to the lions through their 'Quintessence'. Now THAT Erik found ridiculous. But, he had seen a 22km long battleship, a 30 meters tall manmade monster fighting against both a natural sea monster and a giant mech, and average-looking people lifting tanks with their minds and throwing them kilometers away, plus a gigantic space station the size of a small moon, all on his home universe, so anything could happen.

Allura continued after saying that she couldn't find the Red Lion due to a lack of information about its coordinates (and Coran promising to fix it plus the damages made by Erik, calling himself the 'Coranic' or something like that).

"Once all once all Lions are reunited, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever know, the Defend of the Universe."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! And will you stop speaking like that!?" Cried Allura, tired of his attitude.

"Sorry, I had to get it out."

"Wait." Said Hunk. "OK, we're going to be in there and flying lions. Got that part. How do lions turn into legs? Also, is this going to be a long trip? Because I have to pee. Do you people pee?"

"You could just sweat it out kid." Suggested Erik.

"We don't have much time Hunk." Said Shiro. "Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, you stay here. If you locate go get it."

"In the meantime" Said Allura. ", I'll get this Castle's defenses ready. They'll be sorely..."

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Interrupted Erik.

"Oh, right! Well..."

* * *

After choosing to go with Lance and Hunk (and using the FSD instead of the Wormhole just to show that his humanity's FTL travel was nothing to sneeze at, and because the galaxy it was located in was both small and right next to the one Arus was situated. Seriously, it was in fact smaller than the Magellans Galaxy, the smallest of the eight), Erik devised a simple but effective plan to distract the Galra so that Hunk could get to the Yellow Lion, which was on a planet undergoing mining operations.

Interrupting said operations by going in with cannons blazing so that the Galra focused on him instead of Blue and to show the geeky Hunk what could a 30 mm shell going at 10 kilometers per second do to an alien fighter.

"I thought Coran said these planets were peaceful!" Screamed Hunk.

"Well, if they were peaceful then we wouldn't be seeing that piece of art blasting them away!" Grinned Lance while pointing at the Eagle , which was tailing an enemy fighter. The fighter didn't last long against Eric's autocannons.

"Woah..."

"Alright Lance, I got them distracted!" Shouted Erik through comms while blowing up a building with the accelerator. The teens didn't see the few organic Galra being outright disintegrated. "Drop Hunk while I hold them off!"

"But what about you!" Asked Hunk.

"I don't have much ammo left, but I think it'll be enough 'till you get Yellow! Besides, these fighters don't even have shields!"

"Got it! Time to drop Hunk!"

"Wait, at this height!?" Cried Hunk in panic.

Before he could say 'WAIT!', Lance had already dropped him on the mine's pit. He didn't waste time to run towards the mine.

Above them, while Lance was able to easily dodge and destroy the Galra fighter, Erik started to run into a problem he didn't take in account: the fighters the Galra piloted, though not shielded, were still commanded by skilled pilots (subpar compared to anyone from the Pilot Federation, but better than the pilots of some lesser factions nonetheless), pilots who started to fight in in coordinated groups instead of one on one. He still was confident that he could take them out, just not as fast as he wanted.

Unfortunately...

"Pilots of unknown aircraft and Blue Lion!" Yelled a voice through the communications. How the hell could they do that!? "We have captured your companion! Land your vehicles inmediatly or we will execute him!"

Lance and Eric saw a small group of Galra (Eric narrowed his eyes when he saw the yellow-eyed, purple-skinned bastards in, well, technically in person, since they were in the same planet) walking out of the mine with a panicky Hunk in tow.

"Erik, what do we do!" Cried Lance, concerned for his friend but knowing what would happen if the Galra had Blue on their purple claws.

Fortunately, Erik had a plan (and a vehicle bay).

"Lance, I have an idea, but first we have to make them think we are complying, so first we need to land."

"And then what?"

"You'll see."

A few minutes later, the Lion and the Eagle landed in the middle of the mining pit, and were promptly encircled by Galra troops.

"Step out of your vehicles with hands in the air or else!" Exclaimed the Galra commander while he aimed his rifle on Hunk's head.

The Blue Lion crouched its head and opened its mouth, letting Lance walk out with hand on the air. However, nothing happened with the Eagle.

"Why isn't your companion out of his spacecraft yet!" Demanded the commander to Lance. The cuban teen was about to respond when suddenly, the underside of the Eagle opened, letting an Scarab SRV fall out... which promptly rushed towards the Galra commander and Hunk, honking all the way and firing its plasma repeater while circling it, killing the Galra surrounding the ship.

The aliens that were still alive (or in the case of the robots, operational), regaining their bearings after the sudden appareance of the wheeled vehicle, opened fire, but they could only watch in horror as their lasers impacted on a blue shield that protected the car. Thinking that the vehicle wouldn't stop, the commander let go of Hunk and jumped away. Unfortunately for him, Erik did stop when he was a few meters from Hunk. Even more unfortunate for him, the plasma repeater was now able to shoot at him without hitting the chubby Paladin. The commander, seeing the gun zeroing on him, tried to move, but a plasma bolt vapirized his head. Fortunately for Hunk, he was too busy watching the fight to notice the headless corpse next to him.

At that moment, the cabin of the car opened, revealing Erik.

"Get in!" With that Hunk got in the Scarab. Erik then procceeded to take out the rest of the infantry.

"Thanks for saving my butt! I discovered the Yellow Lion but I got captured by those guys! And this thing is awesome!"

"If you think the Scarab is awesome, wait until you see a Nova or a Slammer! Of course comparing them with this car is absurd since those are tanks, but still!" Admitted Eric while he ran over a robot.

After taking care of the land troops, Eric drove near the mine's entrance and Hunk ran off into it. Minutes later, the Yellow Lion bursted out of the ground.

"OK, Hunk has the lion! Let's get out of here before I'm run out of ammo!" Said Erik.

"Yeah!" "Let's go!"

With that the Blue Lion opened a wormhole where the three went through.

* * *

Half an hour later, the trio has already landed in the castle, where they found the Green Lion. They didn't waste time to go to the main room, the teens groaning, the adult mentally counting how many shells and plasma ammunition were left.

'Another fight and I'm out of shells', thought Erik while frowning.

"You made it!" Smiled Allura when she saw them enter.

"Yeah, just barely, but thanks mostly to this guy here" Grinned Lance while patting Erik's shoulder with some difficulty due to the height difference. ", his awesome fighter, and his amazing car!"

"Yeah!" Agreed Hunk. "You should have seen him, dropping Galra left and right like flies or running them over while their lasers splashed against its shield like flies! Uh, I used fly twice."

"Thrice."

"A car? Is your ship a transformer or what?" Asked Keith in a puzzled tone.

"No, they mean my Scarab. It's small enough to hold it on a bay underneath the cockpit, though it's pretty cramped in ships with small classification. Of course, it pays when you need to fight on the surface of a planet and you need something fast, armed and tough but there aren't tanks or armored vehicles at hand. Also, it can rise upwards in normal gravity planets until reaching atmosphere and outright fly in lower gravity ones thanks to its wheels, which can turn into thrusters. Granted, the flying is only because of all the upgrades I bought for mine, but the hovering is a trademark of all SRVs."

"Wow!" "That's incredible!" "You gotta let me try sometime man!"

"Well, that's nice and all." Said Coran. "But there are good and bad news concerning the Red Lion. The good news is, we have located it."

"And the bad news?"

"It's on board the Galra ship that is orbiting Arus." He then smiled. "But wait, good news again, we're-HEE!" He was interrupted by a justifiably angry bounty hunter grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him.

"Erik!" Cried the others.

"IT'S FINGER-COUNTING MORONS LIKE YOU WHO END UP COSTING PEOPLE THEIR LIVES!" If there was something that Erik hated more than the Empire and the Vanduul, it was stupidity.

He would have punched the Altean in the nethers if not for a transmission overtaking the Castle's screen, showing a male Galra in red armor with a red optic instead of left eye.

"Princess Allura," Said the alien. ", this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of..." Before he could continue, Erik sighed in exasperation and grabbed his SMG.

TRRRRR!

The screen was blown to pieces by hypersonic bullets.

"Why did you do that!?" Yelled the group. Except Coran, who started to cry because he knew he'd have to repair that later.

"I'm sick tired of this fracking crap!" Shouted Eric, making the other people in the room gasp. "If you design a ship, you put the bridge on the center instead of a part that is easy sto snipe! If you deploy fighters, you give them shields that are worth a damn! If you use shields, you make them with railguns in mind! AND IF YOU ARE GOING TO ATTACK, YOU DON'T ANNOUNCE IT, YOU JUST ATTACK!" Ranted the bounty hunter. Ironically, the bridge part wasn't exactly respected by quite a lot of capital ships back home, but he included that on his ranting because many others did.

"You know," Interrupted Coran, scared of Eric's outburst. ", maybe he just wanted to tell us to surrender."

"Well, I'm going to tell him something: KWAS!"

"Kwas? What does that mean?"

"Kinetic Weapons Are Superior!" With that he stormed out of the room.

It was then when Keith spoke.

"... Is he really going to fly over that big ship and shoot it with machine guns?" Before the others could respond, Eric came back.

"What the hell are you waiting for! Follow me! I have a plan!" With that the Paladins ran after him.

"But what about the Paladins!" Cried Allura. "They need their armor and weapons!"

"... Eight minutes!"

* * *

Sendak was furious! That damned human, whom he was certainly sure was the owner of the green starfighter that nearly single handed slaughtered the mining operation for the Yellow Lion, had basically shot him in the face!

Admitedly, he only shot his transmited image, but that was a wound to his pride anyway. He would make sure to bring him alive to the Druids, even though he hated them as any other Galra soldier. Of course, that would be after interrogating him to know why a member of a primitive race of apes owned a ship armed with shielding, FTL drive, and energy weapon and high-velocity slugthrowers

"Sir!" His thoughts were interrupted by his second at command, Lieutenant Haxus. "Our scanners have detected a small vehicle exiting Arus atmosphere towards us! The images show that is the green ship."

"What are you waiting for then? Destroy it and its pilot!"

"Sir, it's coming from behind us. Our weapons can't reach it, and we can't turn fast enough. And its quite maneuverable, much more than any other ship I've ever seen before."

"Launch fighters then!"

Just then, a explosion rocked the cruiser, throwing everyone in the bridge to the ground.

"What happened!?" Demanded Sendak.

"Sir, the enemy ship has shoot our main engines with some kind of small but rapid firing kinetic weapon!" Yelled a communications officer.

"Impossible! Our shields can stop matter and even if it could ignore them the engines are too big to be disabled by a ship of that size!"

"But the projectiles were going at ludicrous speed, and particle barriers weren't designed to stop slow objects passing them. The inside of our engines weren't build to resist that kind of damage either, and no one has ever attacked our ships in that way before!"

That shocked Sendak and the crew.

"Impossible..."

"Sir, we have receiving a message from the fighter!"

"Put it through!"

They heard the voice of the armored human.

"Hello there you purple motherfrackers!"

"You!" Shouted Sendak. To his confusion, the human laughed. It wasn't a friendly laugh though.

"Yes, me! And another thing, you should have put your bridge INSIDE the ship! !ay goodbye to it and kiss your ass goodbye!"

To the horror of the people at the bridge, the green fighter literally appeared from below the windows. They could see two barrels of unknown type opening in the inferior part of it, but all knew they were the slugthrowers. And the glass wasn't shellproof.

"EVERYONE DOWN!"

The guns fired, raining hot yet tangible death on the bridge for a second. The organics and robots bypassed by the shells were liquidified by the energy behind projectiles, and the few directly hit practically disintegrated due to the fact that the rounds were as long as their forearms and faster than any fighter.

And mere miliseconds after the act, the decompression kicked in.

Twenty or more unfortunate soldiers and robots who couldn't grab onto something were sucked out of the bridge kicking and screaming. The unlucky ones slammed against the human fighter at breakneck speeds, dying by having their insides flattened againts its flaring shields. The rest, however, managed to hold on the closest thing they had.

"HOLD ON, MEN!" Screamed Sendak over the sound of air rushing out of the room. "HAXUS, WHY AREN'T THE EMERGENCY SHUTTERS CLOSING!?"

It was at that moment that the shutters close the broken windows.

"Right now... sir." Responded Haxus, still on the floor.

Sendak got up, growling like a tiger.

"How many have been killed!?"

"Over a half of the present personnel, plus all Sentries."

Sendak screamed.

"Send all our fighters after that ship NOW!"

Unbeknown to them, Eric had a feeling that the Galra had prisoners on the ship and knew that the Red Lion wasn't indestructible, and because of that he couldn't just go through his original plan of blowing the ship by destroying the bridge (if this happened to any other ship with an exposed bridge it would only be temporarily disabled, but not completely. On this universe, however, he wasn't sure if it worked like that too). However, that still benefited him, since one of those systems was the control of the cargo bay. He wasn't going to get inside the ship though.

The five Earthlings who were right now approaching the ship from below on his Scarab where.

"Erik!" Came the voice of Shire above the angry swearing of Lance, who was the one driving the vehicle, and a certain Samoan teen who was trying to touch everything despite the fact that he couldn't move. Hunk was a fanboy alright. "There's a gate open on the middle of the ship! We're going to enter through it!"

"Alright! I'll the fighters busy while you continue the plan! Get the lions, rescue any prisoners and try to destroy the ship from inside! If you can, I'll try to force it towards the planet so that it crashes!"

"Roger!"

Soon, the Scarab entered in the hangar bay, shooting any Sentry that was still in there. After dispatching them, the Paladins jumped out of the vehicle (nearly literally because of how cramped it was in there) and prepared their weapons. Hunk and Lance had Bayards (transforming weapons that could change their size) that were a chainsaw-grip blaser and a sniper weapon respectivelly.

Shiro, Keith and Pidge, however, wielded weapons they were given by Erik, since he didn't want a kid like Pidge defenseless (when the boy tasered him to prove he wasn't, Erik just stood there with an annoyed look. Admitedly, the Galra wouldn't probably have taser-proof armour, but still...), and didn't exactly think that swords and shields (Keith's Bayard) had a place in the battlefield, even if they were made of energy (and the fact that Erik himself said that many people back at his universe still carried metal knives and such for emergencies. And that's not counting the Empire and the Vanduul). Shiro's reason was that the Bayard of the Black Paladin was missing, and he didn't want to use is prosthetic hand as a weapon (and also because he didn't know if it could be used as one).

Keith hefted an lightning shotgun, Pidge had a simple energy pistol, and Shiro, being the most trained of the three, carried a ballistic 6 mm rifle with a muzzle velocity of 5 km per second. Giving weapons to minors didn't sit well to Erik, but they explained that Galaxy Garrison had a small weapons course used for training their cadets 'for emergency reasons'.

"Erik, we're in! We'll get the Red Lion and search for prisoners!" Informed Shiro through his helmet.

"Ok, but don't take too long, I don't have much ammo left!" And with that Erik cut off communications.

"Alright cadets! Pidge and I will search for any prisoners that the Galray may have, and see if the Holts are with them; Keith, you will go with Lance and Hunk and search for the Red Lion with the Scarab!" Briefed Shiro to the teens.

"But what about the ion cannon?" Asked Hunk. Just then, another explosion rocked the ship. "Oh!"

"Let's move!" With that the Paladins left further into the ship to fullfill their missions.

Outside the ship, everything was going well for Erik. Sure, it was only a matter of time before his guns ran dry, and he didn't have that many plasma ammunition left, but on the other hand, the Galra pilots didn't seem to know that space was not air and that you could rotate your ship and fire at the enemies that pursued you while the ship keeps moving in the direction you were flying it towards.

Besides that, the warship itself was practically harmless at this point: its main weaponry had been rendered useless (the ship's shielding was indeed useless against hypersonic slugs, and even though it was made of strong material it hat its limits), and it couldn't move in realspace anymore.

'Should have changed the guns with pulse lasers', thought Erik grimly when he saw the small amount of shells left on his cannons. He was referring to the fact that pulse lasers, though prone to overheating, didn't use ammo, plus they couldn't be dodged if they were well aimed because they traveled at the speed of light; on the other hand, their range was stupidly pitiful at 4 miles (whereas plasma bolts demagnetized at 40, and kinetic rounds just kept going until they hit something which was bad anyway if you fought in allied or owned space; don't want to bring the apocalypse to some planet after all), but that was because they were designed for dogfighting and the designers chose to not solve the thermal blooming issue that plaged all laser weapons in space (capital ship lasers, being huge, didn't have that problem, alongside with plasma cannons and railguns). Of course, if he did that he wouldn't have been able to humiliate the Galra by demonstrating that something flying at enough speed can ignore particle shields.

Just then, Shiro's voice came out of the speaker. Well, that and the sound of Galra laser bolts flying, the pistol he gave to Pidge firing, and of course the stackato of the rifle he gave to Shiro.

"Erik, Keith and the others are in the same room as the the Red Lion, so its a matter of time!"

"And the prisoners?"

"Already on their way to the castle! We've got them on a Galra escape pod, so they should be safe!"

"Copy that." He only said that instead of getting angry at Shiro for implying that he would have shot the escape pod full of prisoners. One of the rules of the Pilots Federation is that you don't shoot down an escape pod, period, and as pragmatic and ruthless as he was he was still a Pilot.

Minutes later, the Red Lion was flying alongside the Eagle with Erik's SRV clutched on its paws.

"Wohooo! We made it!" That was Lance, although Erik could heard Hunk also screaming in the background. "And all thanks you buddy!" He was of course referring to Erik's plan and his role on it.

"Yeah, but you were the ones that carried it out in there." He would have said more, but Allura interrupted them.

"Did you rescue the Red Lion? You need to form Voltron!"

"That won't be a problem anymore Princess." Said Shiro. "The Galra warship has been disarmed and inmobilized by Erik."

"Yep. I could try destroying it completely, but I don't enough ammo left. On the other hand... can you guys get the other lions? I have another idea."

"Assembling Voltron to finish it off?"

"No, using them like rams to push the cruiser into Arus atmosphere so that it crashes on the surface."

He could heard Hunk squeeing in the background.

* * *

"One... two... THREE! Put your engines at full power!"

At Erik's shout, the five Lions (Shiro managed to 'unlock' the Black one) and the Eagle (placed against the ship's hull with care) started their thrusters. Slowly, buy quickly gaining speed, the ship was pushed downwards towards Arus. Eventually, gravity took hold of the ship, and it fell on the ocean.

The Paladins and the Alteans cheered, and Erik grinned.

"And that's why you don't let big enough ships get near your flagship!"

"We did it! And we didn't even need to form Voltron!"

"Well, don't get too excited." Came Coran's voice. "There are thousands of worlds under Galra control, and you'll have to form Voltron sooner or later to liberate them. We can't just rely on the lions and the Eagle to fight all the Galra Navy."

"Thousands!?" Exclaimed Hunk, Lance and Pidge.

"That few?" Said Erik. "The Federation has at least a million ships, and most of them are at least as big as Sendak's ship, if not bigger. Besides, with that performance, as long as I have shells on my guns and energy on my accelerator, and your support of course, those ships won't stand a chance." He then revised his console, and grimaced. "Unfortunately, I have none of the former, and only one of the latter."

"Can you make more of them?" Asked Pidge.

"If you were asking someone else, that someone would laugh at you for suggesting that. You need a fabricator and matter to create ammo for projectile weapons, and plasma weapons need matter to create plasma. Needless to say, it would be expensive to have that kind of machinery on a ship considering that is both expensive and restricted. Militaries don't like pirates riddling their ships with holes after all."

"Oh." He could hear Pidge's dissappointment.

"However... I DO have a fabricator on my ship. It's quite small, and plasma ammunition will require some time since its made in one by one basis, but as long as I have the specific metals, I can make twelve shells per hour."

"Neat!" Said Pidge. "And what are they made of?"

"An alloy of tungsten carbide and titanium. Other metals like steel and just titanium can be used, but don't expect them to pierce anything even at hypersonic speed, much less drain shields."

"First thing first!" Came Hunk's voice. "We need to land and reunite with the princess and Coran!" He sounded... giddy?

"Why?"

"To celebrate with a party! We destroyed a giant ship without forming Voltron! And it didn't explode, so we need a proper celebration." With that he flied Yellow to the Castle of Lions. The rest, confused, followed him.

"Explode? You wanted THAT to explode? In atmosphere?" Said Erik in a flaggerbasted tone.

"Hunk is, well, special when it comes to science fiction stuff." Said Pidge.

"You too like lasers and starships!"

"No Hunk, I like science fiction in the style of The Expanse and Avatar without hyperspace or shields or lasers or all that."

"Well, too bad for you because if your universe is like mine you'll have FTL in fifty years and shields in two hundred. As for lasers, you're probably talking about plasma bolts, because laser cannons were the weapon to go for..."

"Alright alright!"

When they arrived to the castle, they were greeted by Allura and Coran, who were waiting for them in the bridge. Coran was holding a glass bottle containing some kind of translucid liquid (guess which) and rambling about 'quintessence' and 'unable to fly', while Allura smiled at them.

"You did it! You k...defeated Sendak" She said to the Paladins and the bounty hunter. The 'k' didn't escape Erik though. "You may not have formed Voltron, but what you did was spectacular nonetheless!"

"Well princess" Said Shiro while putting his prosthetic on Erik's shoulder. "If it hadn't been for Erik, we wouldn't have been able to destroy Sendak's ship without assembling Voltron."

"Indeed." Said Hunk in a surprisingly serious tone, which evaporated when he grinned. "But now, before we party... Erik, could you please take off your helmet?" He was, of course, referring to the Hemlok helmet he was wearing at the moment.

"What? Why?"

"PLEAAASE?" Begged Hunk with PDE (Puppy Dog Eyes. Erik knew the name of this tactic because it was still used in the 45th century). Erik did what he was asked. "Now, get in front of the Princess and kneel. You're too tall." Confused but still complying he did so, and he realized that Hunk was right: Allura was taller than Pidge, Keith and Lance (though only by one or two inches), but shorter than the rest, which meant that he dwarfed her; however, when he kneeled the height difference lessened. "And now stare at each other's eyes."

"What for?" Asked Allura, justifiably confused by Hunk's instruction.

"She's right Hunk, why."

"Just do it!"

Erik looked at Allura and shrugged. "I don't see where are you getting at big boy, but alright." With that he looked at her eyes (he had to look down due to the height difference), and she did the same with his; hers were filled with some aprehension, his with confusion for the petition.

Now that he could look at them more closely, he realized that they were quite beautiful (her lavender irises had some kind of brightness that made them even more incredible) and full of hope and kindness. And that was not counting her face in general, practically flawless and looking like sculpted wood.

Allura, on the other hand, was seeing the reverse. When he saw him without his helmet for first time she thought that his eyes were black, but now she could see that his pupils were in fact red, and not the natural kind of red; the only thing she could of to explain it was that he suffered some kind of rupture on his pupils and the blood had somehow stayed painting the center of his eyes red (which was in fact true. Helmets only protect from explosions to a point). And under his terrifying stare (but only of its coloration) and confused demeanor she could see... anger. The fact that his face looked like it had been made by someone who had punched a rock until it resembled a face made him look like a brute, but it was obvious that he was not (and there was also the fact that he apologized to her for elbowing her in the gut).

And just when Erik was about to speak...

"Standard hero reward scene!"

Suddenly and without warning (in fact, they didn't even hear him move!), Hunk slammed their heads together... which had the unexpected (for them) effect of their lips colliding. And it wasn't fast.

There wasn't tongue though.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" "WAAAH!?" "NOOOO!" Exclaimed Coran, Pidge and Lance. Keith and Shiro simply stared in shock. Erik was more articulate.

"What the hell Hunk!?

The bounty hunter inmediatly got up. Allura, however, stood there, stunned by Hunk's actions.

"The princess kiss the hero after he destroys the enemy weapon! That's how it works in space operas!"

"What."

"Hunk, this is not a space opera!" Exclaimed Lance. "And I wanted to kiss her first!" At that everyone looked at him with deadpan stares. "What?"

Erik ignored him and looked at Hunk.

"What the hell do you mean with space opera? And don't telle me it's literally opera in space."

"An epic history like Middle Earth or Harry Potter, except in space!" Seeing that Erik was still not getting it, Hunk explained. "A great adventure amongst the stars to save the galaxy from a powerful evil, with magic and myth in the middle of all of it. And in our case, a powerful warrior comes from nowhere and helps people without seeking a reward, he saves two teenagers from certain death, defies impossible odds and defeats them, and finds love! And..."

"Hunk, if you were on my universe you could make a book out of what you said and you'd find yourself swimming in money, but all of that is... not true." He didn't want to use a more colorful word." I'm not a mighty warrior, I helped you because I owed you for nearly killing you, those odds were a bunch of fascists that didn't know anything about their enemy, and it was YOU who forced us to kiss!"

"Which is the worst of the issues because what you just made them to do was basically a swordpoint affiance minus agreement of both parties!" Exclaimed Coran.

Wait a minute.

"What does 'swordpoint affiance' mean, Coran?" Asked Shiro.

"Accorded betrothal." Responded Allura, still somewhat stunned by Hunk's actions. "Yellow Paladin, you just made us do the first step to Altean marriage."

"WHAT!?" Screamed Lance (while crying a river) and Hunk (now actually scared). Erik just sighed in frustation.

"Yes, and you both skipped the earlier steps and went directly to the kissing!" Said an indignant Coran. It was Allura's turn to have an outburst alongside Erik.

"What does that mean Coran!?"

"Yeah, you sound like you would like to see them togeter. Married I mean." Asked Keith.

"Don't take me wrong, I don't approve of a rushed wedding, and I still remember that headbutt. However, you also helped us when you had no reason, and 'I nearly killed you by accident and so I owed you' doesn't count. Plus, you also reminded us, Allura and I, that we don't need to form Voltron to solve all our problems."

"We only destroyed a ship."

"Who knows what will we face in the future. Besides, she's already in the proper age for marriage."

"So you want me to get married to him!?" Screamed Allura. That annoyed Erik.

"¿Is there something wrong with me lady?", said the bounty hunter to Allura, making her blush.

"N-no, no, there's nothing wrong with you!" Said Allura stuttering.

"I didn't said anyting about wedding!" Coran said, trying to calm her down. "I just said that you have the prime qualities of a good partner."

Surprisingly, it was Allura the one who responded.

"Now that you mention that, I see your point. But still, I'm not going to get married!" At that she looked up to Erik. "But I wouldn't mind knowing you a little more." She said with a smile.

"Me too!" Replied Hunk.

"Me three!" Said Pidge.

Erik sighed, but then smiled. "Well, what do you want to know?"

Well, there it is, a Voltron: Legendary Defender crossover that is neither a Klance story, a Shallura romance, or even worse, a cliché fanfic that follows canon to the T and which only change to the plot is adding an OC and minimal changes, following the plot to the letter instead of trying to change it even significantly like Son of The Seven Kingdoms or Gatehammer: Fantasy Battles.

Mine throws that to the window by not even assembling Voltron and using an OC that basically solves everything but in a flashy way.

It all started when, searching for (then less famous and with fanfiction that you could count with one hand) Elite stories I found Rift: A Voltron x Elite:Dangerous Crossover. More than a year later and it's still on its prologue, so its either on hiatus or dead. Even though it was just describing a guy finding the Castle of Lions, it was nice to see a more Sci-Fi crossover with Voltron that wasn't Evangelion or Steven Universe.

That made me think. What if, instead of Space Dad, Hunky and the rest, Blue had brought the Hunters from Evolve, the Vault Hunters or other sci-fi game characters that to Arus? Hell, what if instead of Blue, the Forward Unto Dawn did that? Thus, Voltron: Elite Hunter was born. Of course, I wanted to make it interesting and for that the crossover also includes Star Citizen (more races and weapons, which I renamed with Elite terms), Wing Commander (more ships), Stellaris (some stuff), a bit of EVE (ship dimensions) and more in the future, which is this is an X-overs and Voltron: Legendary Defender crossover and not just Elite (yeah, Elite, not Elite: Dangerous). I won't include movies like Star Wars for obvious reasons, but series will.

There was also the fact that although there are a lot of MxM, MxF/M!OC and Shallura, only one crossover has AlluraxOC (Become ONE), and with the implications of Allura and Lance ending together writers might keep that ship instead; I hope that this, Become ONE and future crossovers change that

Criticism is welcome, likes and follows are even more welcome, and I own nothing except my OC.


	2. Chapter 2

After celebrating the defeat of Sendak (and the reunion of the Paladins too), Erik and the inhabitants of the Castle of Lions went to sleep to their respective quarters: the human Paladins were given the rooms of their predecessors, clean but obviously empty after 10.000 years of not being used; Coran's was like the Paladins, but was full of stuff belonging to him (he actually wept seeing that after all those years his room was still there); and Allura had the classical princess bedroom with a large royal bed, a stand with a mirror and veils hanging from the ceiling, plus a lot of blue lights.

Erik, on the other hand, decided to sleep on his ship. When the others complained about this, he asked Coran if the castleship had more rooms to spare. He was surprised to hear that there were, but kept his decision because he preferred to sleep on his ship anyways. When asked why, he said that even if there was nobody else on the planet he was just accustomed to always sleep on the Eagle to make sure it wasn't stolen, even in 'civilized' systems and stations. Besides, he wouldn't sleep on the cockpit: the ship, though lacking on actual quarters, did have a bed for pilots to sleep in. Seeing that they wouldn't get him to sleep on the castle, the others relented.

When he entered the Eagle Erik got out of his flight suit and started writing on his captain's log. The application was usually used by explorers to record where have they been, but some bounty hunters, like him, also found a use to it. Most of the time he only wrote about the job (and other, more intimate information), but since he didn't know how long would he be in that universe he though that recording events would be interesting. Besides, if he came back to his universe he could show it to justify his absence to the Pilots Federation.

He went to the cockpit and after giving the night sky a look, sat on the seat and activated the console to write.

 _Captain's log, erm, day 1. Gee, I don't know how capital shipmasters do this stuff._

 _Today has been an interesting day: blew another bounty, got sucked by a wormhole, found myself in another universe where Earth is in the middle of the 21_ _st_ _century and for some reason everyone uses lasers only and ignores kinetic weaponry, there's an intergalactic empire that wants a giant robot which disassembles into five equally huge robot cats, nearly killed and befriended people in a castle that's also in a ship, and some of those people are humans from the previously mentioned Earth and are also the pilots of the robot cats; destroyed a warship by pushing it towards a planet... Oh, and also kissed a princess, though not by choice._

 _She's still pretty damn beautiful though, and her butler, Coran, wouldn't mind us marrying because I have, according to him, 'good qualities', like helping the helpless or something. I don't mind being called heroic, but I'm not exactly a knight; hell, if he had actually called me a knight, I would have knocked him off his ass. I'm not knight, I'm a proud bounty hunter. I don't try and defend myself screaming about honor and all that crap; both knights and bounty hunters kill for a living, but at least we aren't obsessed with killing and get actual rewards for it._

 _Tomorrow I'm going to find some asteroids to mine for ammo for the cannons, there's no station to buy shells from and frankly the frabricator needs some use. Plus, Hunk and Pidge, a chubby guy obsessed with science fiction and a more sensible short kid, want to see how the people of the 45_ _th_ _century mine._

 _Yep, it has been an interesting day alright. And who knows, maybe tomorrow will be another interesting day. Signing off._

After that he turned off the console and went to bed.

* * *

 **In Allura's dream...**

 **Allura was dreaming with a day of her past. Specifically her 18** **th** **birthday. Being a lucid dreamer, she practically reenacted the event.**

 **All in Altea was in celebration for the coming of age of their future ruler, which was heartwarming because no previous inheritor to the throne (not even her father, King Alfor) had a party like that when they reached 18 years of age. The party was being held in the courtyard of the Castle of Lions. The Paladins (Zarkon, Trigel, Blaytz and Gyrgan. Of course, it was before the first turned evil) and their families (like Honerva, the wife of Zarkon; she simply dissapeared after the destruction of Daibaazal, unlike her husband) being family in anything but blood, were invited to the celebration.**

 **Just like that day, she received her gifts, she danced with some suitors, she gossiped with her friends and Honerva...But then something happened that changed her dream.**

 **The lions (which at the moment were without their Paladins and in their respective hangars) roared out of nowhere. Their roars interrupted the party, with the attendees confused and alarmed. Why did the lions of Voltron roar? Was something happening that made them do that?**

" **Father, what happened? Why did the lions roar?" Asked Allura to her father, playing along with the now-changed dream.**

" **I don't know Allura" Replied Alfor, also unsure of what just happened. ", but I can't feel the Red Lion."**

" **What?" Said Allura's mother. "But the bond is supossed to last until death!"**

" **I can't explain it. It's like something cut the connection between us." Explained Alfor. He then saw the other Paladins jogging towards them. "Friends, any ideas of what riled them? Or the connection?"**

" **Nope, no idea." Responded Gyrgan, the Yellow Paladin and strongest of the five. "We wondered if you could, y'know, know something about it." He wasn't exactly dumb, but of the five he was the most blunt and the one that acted first, asked questions later.**

" **I can't think of any reason, beyond someone touching them, which I doubt."**

" **Don't you really know anything about this? You were the one who made them."**

" **Yes, but I designed them to be inert if we weren't piloting them, with exceptions in dire situations, and as far as we know this isn't one."**

" **Hey, maybe that's just the way they say 'Happy birthday Princess'!" Suggested Blaytz, the Blue Paladin and skilled warrior, with a smile.**

" **No, I don't think that's the reason." Said Zarkon, the Black Paladin and leader of the five. "I've never heard them roar with that intensity before. And even then it wouldn't explain why our bonds are severed."**

" **We are still in the dark then." Said Trigel, the Green Paladin and the most able with technology alongside Alfor. Also quite sarcastic, as Allura remembered her.**

" **Alfor! Paladins!" Cried a voice in the crowd and someone came out running towards them. It was Coran, and he looked like he was in a panic.**

" **Coran! You heard that too right?"**

" **Yes, and I think I know why the lions did that!**

" **What is it?"**

" **There's an asteroid in Altea's atmosphere, and not exactly a small one; it's large enough to cause catastrophic damage to the planet if it crashed on the surface!"**

" **How did it get past the particle barrier?"**

" **Somehow it wasn't fast enough to be registered as a meteor by the barrier even with that size."**

" **So? We'll get in the Lions before it falls and..."**

" **The meteor is not falling to the planet, it's hovering in the endoatmosphere! And the scanners didn't detect any quintessence on it; only rock, some kind of unknown energy source and something else inside it! Whatever it is, it's not natural!"**

 **The revelation surprised the people present.**

" **What could it be then? It can't be a meteor, even if it's made of stone."**

" **Maybe it's a ship of some kind? Not all ships are made out of metal."**

" **If so, who or what does it belong to, and why did it come here like that?"**

" **First we see what is it, and then we decide what to do. Let's get to the Lions." Said Zarkon.**

 **Before leaving with the Paladins, Alfor told her to go with Coran and her mother to the Castle bridge to see the Paladins at work, and that he was sorry for what was happening in her special day.**

" **I don't mind it, the party was becoming dull anyway." Replied Allura with a smile before following the rest. It was true, her real birthday celebration was kinda dull.**

 **After the Paladins punt on their armors and got into their respective Lions they flied towards the intruding meteor with Zarkon and Alfor in the lead.**

 **When they reached the place where it was, they lost their breath. It wasn't a just simple meteor floating in the air. For starters, it was shaped like a perfect, half a mile-long ball instead of having an irregular shape like a normal meteor.**

" **Incredible, look at that thing! It's completely spherical! We haven't anything like it before!" Said Grygan in awe.**

" **Which means it's not natural." Responded Trigel.**

" **That also implies that it might be piloted." Said Zarkon, who then said through communications: "Attention unknown spacecraft, this is Zarkon, Black Paladin and leader of the Paladins of Voltron, identify yourselves or be destroyed." That statement made the rest of the Paladins and the people in the Castle gasp in shock, Allura included.**

" **Already with the warnings Zarkon!?" Yelled Alfor in an exasperated tone.**

" **They're just that, warnings. I don't plan to destroy them, just get them to act."**

" **Has it occurred to you that maybe they don't speak our language? As in, any known..." Spoke Alfor before being interrupted by the lions roaring again.**

" **They did it again, and this time with us on them!"**

" **Wait. The asteroid, look at it." Came Blaytz voice. "It's like it's..."**

" **Opening? You're right, it's like a breach is opening on its side."**

 **Sure enough there was some kind of gap growing in the part that the lions were facing. But rather than some kind of organic technology or something like that they saw... Someone screamed on the bridge.**

" **It's that... raw flesh?" Said Alfor, shocked when he saw that the ball had a fleshy mass inside it. "Is that asteroid a living creature?"**

" **Oh gods, that's disgusting!"**

" **Hey, don't call it disgusting, it may be sentient and may not like being insulted for what it is; heck, maybe it can't withstand this atmosphere and that's why it's doing that."**

" **Well, at least it reacted." Said Zarkon. "Let's see if it can communicate."**

" **Wait. I think I can see something moving inside."**

" **Is the flesh of that thing moving?"**

" **I think the thing's riled up."**

 **Everyone could see that indeed, the flesh from the gap was moving and forming some kind of limb.**

" **What the heck is that..." Was all Zarkon could say before the strange appendage launched itself towards the Black Lion and cutting off the feeding with the Black Lion and the rest of the Paladins.**

" **What happened!?" Screamed Allura's mother.**

" **I don't know madam!" Replied Coran while working on the controls. "The connection with the Lions has been cut! It also appears that their signals have been cut too."**

" **But that's impossible! The signals track the quintessence that powers them! The only way for it to disappear is...**

CRASH!

 **Something crashed outside the castle, shaking it.**

" **No." Whispered her mother in fear. Inmediatly she ran out of the room, with Allura and the rest in tow. When she got outside and saw what crashed, she cried. "NOOO!"**

 **The Lions laid in the courtyard... or at least what appeared to be an enormous wreck composed by the five mechs, like a cruel parody of Voltron. And by the small rivers of blood that seeped out of the wreck it was obvious that the Paladins did not survive, and even if they did they would have died because of the strength of the crash.**

 **Allura screamed with her when she too saw it. It may have been a dream, but it was too real.**

 **Coran, on the other hand, was too busy looking up towards something in the sky to realize what happened to the Paladins.**

" **Oh gods." he muttered in horror. The people followed his gaze and saw an horrifying sight: a monstruous creature made of stone and exposed flesh falling towards the Castle "Everyone get inside, NOW!" He screamed. But either the creature was smaller than it looked, or it was going at prodigious speed, because it landed on the courtyard in a few seconds, and it threw its horrible limb towards them.**

 **Everything turned black.**

Allura awoke gasping and drenched in sweat. Fearful that what happened in her dream may have been real she looked around frantically, sighing in relief when she saw her room (althoug she was also a bit sad since that was the first time she 'saw' her family before Zarkon's betrayal).

A squeaking noise from the side of her bed attracted her attention; it was the Altean mice, who looked worried for her. She smiled and grabbed them to the bed.

"Don't worry little guys, I'm okay." She said smiling to calm them. However, she herself was still shaken by what she dreamt.

 **'** What kind of nightmare was that? And what was that monster?' She thought before lying down and closing her eyes, going back to a peaceful dream.

* * *

 **Next morning, Castle of Lions bridge**

"Let me get this straight: battles between capital ships take place on distances of over hundreds of thousands of kilometers?" Said Coran in an astounded tone.

"Yeah I know, not far enough but eventually the beams lose coherence and the plasma cannons lose their containment cases."

"HELP!"

"Hunk, didn't you say that you wanted to be in a... 'space opera' or something like that?"

"No, I said this WAS LIKE an space opera, not that I wanted to be in one! Besides, I WANT TO LIVE!"

"Don't be such cowards." Said Allura in a calm tone before switching to disturbed one and talking to Erik. "Not far enough!? Compared to what your universe does, space battles before the creation of Voltron were practically knife fights!"

"HOW THE HECK IS THIS SUPOSSED TO HELP US!?"

"Don't ask me, I'm not a Paladin." Replied Erik before turning to Allura. "Princess, laser beams travel at the speed of light, which is measured in hundred of thousands of kilometers, and capital ships are big and slow enough that railgun shots can still hit them. Add sensors in the mix and the speed and ordnance capacity of strikecraft, and that distance becomes rather short; especially considering the power of beams and slugs going at a fraction the speed of light, although for the second ones you have to take in account their firing solutions and rate of fire. There are still many battles that end at 'knife range' distance though, either for desperation or other motives."

"Still, that's incredible. Battles with ships set so far that they simply can't see each other yet can still fire accurately..."

"Watch it Mullethead, you nearly hit my Lion!"

"Excuse me I'm trying to LIVE!"

"Watch it Lance you were about to step on my ship!"

"Sorry!"

"So, princess, are you really sure this will help them form Voltron and not kill them?" Asked Erik watching the Lions avoid energy blasts from the particle shield that covered the castleship alongside Coran and Allura, all while hearing the Paladins scream in terror.

"Of course! The heat of battle will help force them to assemble Voltron! Besides, I wanted to make a diagnostic test of the barrier to see if it still worked."

"It makes some sense, but don't forget that my ship is OUTSIDE the barrier." Erik said while watching a blast land near his ship. "If it gets hit OR squashed by a giant cat I'll bonk you senseless."

"Erik! Don't speak to the princess like that!" Exclaimed Coran, but he shut up when he saw that Erik turned towards him with a manic glare.

"Don't worry Coran, I won't leave you aside; I'll castrate you." Seeing the alteans horrified expressions, he laughed. "Just kidding! But still, if anything happens to my Eagle, both of you WILL get punched. I live there, remember?"

Earlier that day, Coran and Allura showed them a map of the known universe, nearly all of it under Zarkon's control, that showed thousands of marks representing calls for help from uncountable planets, and that Earth was dangerously close to the limits of the Galra Empire, and told the Paladins that they must trainto assemble Voltron while she and Coran prepared the Castle of Lions to leave Arus. Erik said that he could go to Sol with his ship and defend it from any Galra, but even after watching him fight the Alteans reminded him that the Galra had an entire Empire, and he had a single ship, although a powerful and fast one, and he himself said that he had to replenish his ammo stock for the autocannons, so he relented. He saw that Allura looked worried about something, and he was pretty sure it wasn't him, but he decided against asking her what had her worried.

However, seeing the previous attempts of the earthlings to assemble the robotic warrior fail epically (first by flying in formation and screaming 'Yeah!' several times, and then stacking the Lions on top of each other not even in the proper order), Allura got an idea: activate the barrier that covered the Castleship and shoot them, hoping that the fear and the adrenaline rush could make them assemble Voltron. Of course, it had two rather obvious problems: the Lions could get destroyed and Erik's Eagle was right there with them since she activated the shield before Erik could move it. Given that his ship was both his house and his job vehicle (even if he couldn't work for anyone at the moment), he made his displeasure quite obvious.

Just then, Lance lost his wits and charged towards the barrier, which repelled the Blue Lion, making it slam with the Eagle. Thanks to Lance control he ship was merely pushed back, but for Erik that was the limit.

"Okay that's it! Enough's enough!" Screamed Erik. Before either altean could move, the bounty hunter approached the console of the barrier and started to beat it like a maniac, breaking it hit by hit. "How do I turn off this thing!"

"What are you doing Erik!?"

"Making sure that my house won't get squashed! I'm not going to let you destroy my ship just because they can't form a damn robot!"

"Wait, stop!" Cried Coran. "I just recalibrated that console!" But it was too late to save the advanced piece of technology, which sizzled and spewed sparks before shutting down. Coran screamed in horror and ran to see if something could be saved.

On the other hand, Hunk and Lance cheered like madmen when they saw the barrier went down and that the attacks stopped cold.

"Thank goodness!"

"Woohoo! We're free! FREE! Wait, we're already out."

"We are saved! Thank you Erik!"

"Lance, if it wasn't for the fact that you weren't controlling your lion, I'd spank your ass until it your buttbones were shown!" Said Erik in a irated tone, scaring the earthling.

"Well, I guess you're happy now Erik!" Exclaimed Coran after seeing that the barrier console was completely wrecked. "Now how do we defend the Castle without a particle shield if the Galra attack again!"

"Just make another one, or repair the generator. You are the 'Coranic' after all."

"It's not simply the fact that is broken! One of the quintessence crystals that powered the Castle, specifically the one that powered the shield, is nearly depleted! I can't repair it if I have to recharge the quintessence crystal!" Yelled Coran.

"The what of what? And what do you mean with 'depleted'? Your species didn't find an indepletable way to power your stuff?"

"Most of our technology is powered by quintessence stones. They may not be renewable, but the charge lasts thousands of years and even then they can be recharged with an Altean ritual, or going to a Balmera." Said Allura in a somewhat smug tone; she didn't want to tell the others about her nightmare, at least for the moment. Besides, she herself said that she would like to know the human from another dimension more. "Why, do you have a more powerful energy source that life itself?"

"Ah right, the 'magical force' that powers your stuff. Well, I don't know if its powerful, but many of the human capital ships and stations are powered by dark matter-fed reactors." Rather than awe or shock, he saw confusion in the alteans faces. He then remember that they also had magic and that war was basically non existant even before the creation of Voltron; maybe their purely technological advances weren't that advanced (contrary to what the earthlings would say)

"Dark matter? What is that?"

"Sounds kinda evil with that name."

"Ironic, considering that it's anything but evil." Smiled Erik. "It's the stuff that composes 85% of the universe, and the most powerful source of energy."

"What!?"

Just then, the Paladins entered the room, all weary from the 'training' but happy to be alive. In fact, Hunk ran towards Erik and hugged him in a way that, if the bounty hunter had been smaller, would have been lifted from the ground.

"Thank you! You saved our butts back there!" He then turned to Allura and Coran. "And you! You guys nearly killed us with what you called 'training'!"

"Well, you should have assembled Voltron then!" Replied Coran. "

"Let's leave it for later okay?" Said Shiro.

"Yeah." Agreed Pidge. "Say, we heard you guys talking about something. What was it?"

"Erik was telling us about his universe's technology." Said Allura. "Specifically that the human capital ships use dark matter as fuel." At that the Paladins gaped at the bounty hunter.

"D-dark matter?" Stuttered Shiro. He knew what it was because of his companions to the mission to Kerberos, Samuel and Matthew Holt, spoke with him about space and related information (and even then they nearly acquired space madness because they didn't have TV or books on the ship, only radio. One month of only radio in a tiny shuttle would drive anyone insane given enough time).

"As in the same thing that makes up the universe?" Said Pidge in awe. He knew what dark matter was because her knowledge about space.

"Wasn't Dark Matter a canned Syfy series?" Said Lance, making everyone to look at him. "What? It was basically Star Wars minus the Force and aliens."

"Well I thought it was the thing Nibbles pooped."

"Hunk, why do you watch a fifty years old cartoon?"

"It's addicting, and it isn't that bad either!" Replied Hunk defensively. "Besides, Tolkien books have more than a hundred years and yet you still read them!"

"Because they are the classics of modern fantasy, and if it wasn't for them Star Wars wouldn't exist!

"Oh yeah? Demonstrate it!"

"Obi Wan is Gandalf, for starters! And Luke is Bilbo!"

"Well, I'm not sure if its really dark matter or something else" Continued Erik while ignoring the bickering teens." , but before the development of engines that could use it as a way to power them we used Zero-Point reactors to fuel the big ships; admitedly we still use them and they're still much more common but we still have Dark Matter Reactors in enough numbers that they aren't that rare. And by the look of your faces that might not be used here, if at all."

"Used here? USED HERE!?" Exclaimed Coran. "Practically all species in the universe use quintessence as an energy source! With some exceptions of course." He was referring, of course, to the earthlings. "You just said that you use THE universe as a fuel!"

"I thought you used fussion and helium from stars to power your ships?"

"Yes, but only for small ones: fighters, gunships, dropships... ships of size ranging up to a corvette in size uses helium; anything bigger uses either Zero Point Reactors or Dark Matter ones."

Coran sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness, I thought we had a galaxy-spawning bomb in our courtyard waiting to blow up."

"Coran, capital ships with Dark Matter reactors don't distort reality when they get destroyed. Well, maybe some do, but the distortion doesn't last longer than a second and even then it's pretty rare for that to happen, since most capital ships still use Zero-Point engines anyway."

"Enough talking about engines." Said Shiro. "We need to train; even if assembling Voltron takes time, the Galra might attack anyway." He also said that because he didn't want to hear just how much did humanity advance in 2400 years; compared their own with them was like comparing cavemen with the U.S military of WW2, and he had a bad feeling about what capability they had.

"You know how to shoot, and my guns have plenty of energy and ammo." Said Erik. "And the Lions aren't all half bad either, fast, tough and armed. Won't mind having a Kraken with us though." He muttered the last part.

"Yeah, but the Paladins need to be able to assemble Voltron when they need to, and we can't just rely on you and your ship to fight our battles." Said Allura.

"Besides, didn't you said you were going to mine some asteroids to fabricate ammunition?"

"That can wait; for the moment this is a more concerning issue. And I think I know what the problem is."

The Paladins and the alteans closed on him.

"Really?"

"Coordination." Said Erik. "While you were busy trying to survive I didn't hear any attempt from any of you to form even a basic solution that didn't concern Voltron." He said, making the Paladins groan in shame.

"You're right."

"Worry not!" Said Coran in a cheerful tone. "The Coranic has a solution for your team problems."

* * *

Minutes later, Erik was watching Lance getting electrocuted by an energy wall.

"So, you changed death by attacking them with death by frying them."

Coran's second solution (the first one was making them fight against drones. Needless to say it was a failure) was throwing the Paladins in an an energy-composed maze with transparent walls that they could not see, requiring that other Paladin guided him to avoid touching the walls. He didn't take in account that Lance (who was the first to get in) and Keith (who was the one supposed to guide him) didn't like each other that much. In fact, Erik had the feeling that Keith was deliberately lying to Lance to give him a hairdo.

"You can't blame me with this! It's them who don't trust each other!" Exclaimed Coran through communications. Rather than going to mine asteroids for titanium and iron (and explore the remains of the Imperial Cutter to see if there was something useful to use, like stored kinetic ammunition and energy; and of course, to make sure no Imperial nor Tev survived), he stayed with the others to oversee the training.

"It's not my fault either !I want Lance to trust me!" Replied Keith. "He's very difficult!"

"Of course I'm difficult, you're trying to get me killed!" Exclaimed Lance from the maze before missing a step and hitting the wall in front of him, electrocuting himself. "SEE!?"

"And that's what happens when you do not have trust in a team!" Said Coran in a triumphant (?) tone.

"Hmm..."

"Don't start saying that this is a useless exercise, you were the one that suggested the team effort stuff that led to this!" Exclaimed Pidge.

"No, I was not going to say anything like that." Although he did think that it was a useless effort, but as Pidge said he shutted up because it was his idea in first place. "I would like to prove something, and I was thinking that maybe we could change this a little."

"How?"

"Let me take Keith's place for a moment and try to guide Lance, I want to try something."

"I'm good with that!" Said Lance. "But if you get me fried like him, I quit!"

Hunk whimpered because he knew that after Lance it would be his turn (even though he was paired with Pidge and had no problems trusting the little guy, the maze was narrow and he was big, and he knew what could happen).

Everyone else looked at Keith, who shrugged and stepped back from the console.

Everyone else looked at Keith, who shrugged.

"Sure, why not. But don't expect him to hear you out."

"As long as you don't guide me like him, I WILL hear you out." Replied Lance.

"Thanks." Said Erik while taking his place. "Lance, go forward."

Lance did so and, to his astonishment, he didn't touch a wall of the maze! Lance could only say one thing to this.

"I'm not fried!" And then he slammed his elbow on the wall on his left. "NEVERMIND, MY BAD! STILL BETTER YOU THAN MULLETHEAD!" He cried before dropping to the ground, blackened and with his hair up.

"Well, this demonstrates this, you two hate each other, and that complicates your teamwork even if you don't realize it."

"Ookay. What now?"

"Now we change pairs and see how Hunk and Pidge do this." He gave a look at Lance. "And see if his heart is still working.

After getting Lance out of the deck and making sure Lance was alive, Hunk and Pidge were next, and their coordination got the big boy out nearly unscathed (he was quite savvy and completely trusted Pidge, but his size and his inherent clumsiness were a problem). Lance and Keith sighed in embarrasment when it was clear that Erik was right.

"Well, that demonstrates it: you two hate each other, or at least one does not like the other enough to trust him. Don't worry though, this has an easy solution."

"Really?" Said both teenagers, hoping that it didn't involve liking each other.

"What is it Erik?" Asked Shiro, having a faint guess of Erik's 'idea'.

"Blind obedience of course. No matter what the guy that acts thinks, he must obey even if he dies." Said Erik in a serious tone (while trying not to snicker when he saw the teens and Coran expressions; Shiro simply sweatdropped). "Now, I'm going to space to see if I can get some metal for my cannons." With that he walked out the hall.

Lance had only one thing to say.

"Okay then." He then turned to Keith while grinning. "You heard him slave, get inside!"

"Darn."

* * *

When Erik arrived at the courtyard, he found Allura looking at his ship alongside her mice, who were perched on her shoulders. Seeing that she didn't know he was right behind there, he smiled and approached slowly and silently until he was a mere foot behind her. For a girl with such long ears she was unable to hear him (and the mice, who were animals and thus supossed to be able to detect threats, didn't hear him move either; they were pets but still).

"Princess." Greeted Erik from behind, making her yelp and jump to ridiculous, letting the mice fall around her. Erik, (not) being the gentleman he was (not), caught her and couldn't help but chuckle when he saw the startled expression on her face.

"Erik, that wasn't nice!" Yelled the altean as Erik let her down. Her mice, who climbed Erik and got back to Allura's shoulders, squeaked in protest alongside her.

"Sorry, but I saw you were out here looking at my ship without being aware of my arrival and I couldn't resist getting a scare out of you! Hey, why are you out here instead of inside with the others? Weren't you the one who wanted the boys to train to be prepared to assemble Voltron?"

"Well, it's just that I wanted to see your ship more closely." Said Allura. "I didn't have time yesterday to see it. Besides, Coran's still with the Paladins right? And why are _you_ outside?"

"Told you guys yesterday that I would go out the planet to find asteroids and get more ammuntion, and I have to see if anything's broken from before. As for Coran and his 'training'... Well ,unless he remembers something is broken somewhere in the castle, which I doubt, then yes, he's still with them." Said Erik. "Although his method for training the boys is not that effective, since he forces them to be as blind as caskers and the maze also doubles as a frier. Not that the previous training was better, but at least they could fight back."

"Is anyone dead yet?" Asked Allura in a calm tone; inwardly she was screaming at Coran for using the same method that nearly killed the previous Paladins.

"Thankfully no, but Lance will probably get some payback from Keith's failure."

"Failure? What happened in the training deck?"

Erik told her about the 'situation' that the Red and Blue Paladins had (but didn't tell her about what Lance would definitely to to Keith). Allura sighed in disappointment.

"This will complicate things. If the Galra attack again and they can't form Voltron..."

"Look Princess "Interrupted Erik." , I know Voltron will be a big thorn in the ass for the Empire if it does assemble, but as I said yesterday, you can't expect one robot to defeat singlehandely an intergalactic empire. And yes, that's counting me and my ship."

"We would have the help of the liberated to fight back."

"Question: after your father create the Lions and the Paladins, did any other governments keep their militaries?"

Allura grimaced, remembering the nightmare of the previous night. Luckily Erik thought she was just realizing what happened to the armies and navies of most of the Universe species.

"No, most of them didn't keep any, thinking that the Paladins would be enough to protect them. A peacekeeping force on their homeworlds at best."

"And you expect that after 10.000 years under Galra domination they can help with fighting Zarkon, especially since they didn't even have ground troops when he attacked?"

Allura looked down in shame. She didn't think about that problem. Yes, Voltron was powerful, but as Erik said it was only one warrior, and the Lions were weaker by themselves. And if one of the Paladins died...

Erik's expression softened when he saw her state. He decided to cheer her up. Besides, he wanted to ask her something.

"Don't be like that. If you say that Voltron is powerful enough to defeat Zarkon, it might be."

"But yesterday you said..."

"I haven't seen the thing in action yet, I was quite biased. Hey, do you want to come with me to gather metal? It wouldn't take long, and you can bring your rats." He said, getting angry squeaks from the mice, offended at being called 'rats'.

"Well, I don't have anything to do for the moment with Coran training the Paladins, but we should tell them."

"Nah, we won't take too long."

* * *

In the training deck, Coran was busy trying to pry Keith's (who was completely scorched) hands from Lance's neck (who somehow was laughing his ass out even while being strangled) with the help of Shiro, Pidge and Hunk, to not avail.

"Just let it pass Keith!"

"I'll let it pass when I let him pass!"

"Let him pass to where?"

"To Heaven or Hell, both are good options!"

"For the love of...!" Shiro was interrupted by the sound of powerful engines. "What the!?"

The distraction was enough for the others to pull Keith from Lance.

"What was that! It is the Galra!?" Exclaimed Hunk in a terrified tone. "We haven't assembled the big robot yet! We're doomed! DOOOMED!"

"No, I heard those engines before, and it's coming from the courtyard." Replied Shiro. "I think it's Erik's ship. And I think you are over exaggerating since you also know what they sound like Hunk."

"I know." Admitted Hunk in a sheepish tone, making the others stare at him with deadpan eyes. "I just wanted to imitate Bender."

"I still don't get why you like that cartoon."

"But where's he going? Also, where's the princess? Wasn't she supossed to come to see how was our training going?"

"He said earlier that he would go to space to find metal. As for the princess, odds are that she's with him." Said Coran smiling while helping Lance to get up (and not seeing him pouting). "That's good."

"What, why?"

"Don't you guys remember what I said yesterday about the two of them getting to know each other more? Besides, that leaves you with me for more... what are you... Hey, let go of me!"

"Why? We're just going to throw you into the maze of death and fried chicken!"

"NOOO!"

* * *

Up in the inner atmosphere, Allura was sitting on the Eagle's bay (the cockpit had only one seat, the pilot's, but she didn't mind), specifically in front of a wall full of weapons, a bit wary of the armament Erik carried (especially some kind of sword that was badly placed and looking like it would drop any second; Keith would be miffed if he saw that the man who told him that swords were useless owned one), but nonetheless excited to be in space after ten thousand years in stasis. She had been in space before that, but the instances were few and far in between; the last one had been the evacuation from Altea to Arus.

The ship shook, sending her and the mice to the ground... alongside the sword, which missed her hand by mere inches. The princess yelped and recoiled from the fallen weapon.

"Are you alright back there!?" Yelled Erik from the cockpit when he heard her (though not because he saw what happened; the friction was still making a sizzle inside the ship).

"Your sword was pretty close to cut off my hand! Otherwise I'm ok!" Replied Allura in an angered tone.

"What sword?"

"Your sword!"

"Let me get the ship out of Arus atmoshpere and I'll see what you're talking about!"

After the bounty hunter arrived in the exosphere of the planet, which had no gravity and therefore the ship wouldn't move, he activated his magnetized boots and walked to the bay, where he saw Allura and her mice trying to float away from a floating sword. By swimming. In vacuum.

"You do realize that you aren't moving right?"

"I don't care, get that thing away from me! And what happened to the gravity generator!?"

"First, it's not moving either so you should stop, and second, I don't have a gravity generator."

"What!? Why not!?"

"Because these ships don't come with them and I didn't bother to buy one; I don't need it and frankly, it would fill space I need for other things."

"Then why aren't you or your stuff floating while we are? And why didn't we float before?"

"Magnetized plates for my things and magnetized boots for my suit. "He said while tapping his left boot. "Also, the thrust of a moving ship keeps stuff inside of it 'anchored', to describe it in a way, which is why you didn't sped up the chair.", said Erik while approaching the altean princess and putting her back on the chair with care. He then grabbed the sword and sighed. "Well, most of my weapons save this sword, but it was to be expected, usually I just place it in the chest."

"Why do you have that sword? I thought weapons like that were redundant in your universe, and that Keith would get himself killed with his bayard."

"I lied." Said Erik bluntly but in a sincere tone. "Keith is not that bad of a fighter, but I bet he never handled a sword in his life. The average Achenar soldier is trained in the use of this kind of sword and they end up being as good with them as any rifleman with a rifle; and the Vanduul are eight feet tall and their knives are big enough to impale a six foot man."

"And why do you have that sword? Did you buy it?"

"It's more of a reward really, except I literally grabbed it from the cold, dead hands of its original owner, mean son of a bitch he was. Some planets are deathly cold after all, and the one where I killed him was amongst the coldest. Dude's fingers were literally turned to ice because he didn't have gloves."

"Eww." Grimaced Allura. "That's disgusting. But why did you steal his sword?"

"Well, for starters, it's not stealing if the owner is your enemy and they're dead. And frankly, he nearly killed me with just his blade, which made punching him to death more satisfying and getting his sword a kind of reward."

Said Erik while he swinged the sword slowly. "And you won't see me using it against a real enemy, 'cause I don't like this thing." After a few more swings he placed it on the rack, and this time he locked it in place with magnetization (it would be redudant to hide the blade after what happened). After that he approached a chest in the wall and opened, ruffling through its contents searching for something for Allura to walk. "Well, do you want to see space?"

"Of course, that is why I went with you!" Exclaimed Allura.

"Then put these on." Said Erik while closing the chest and pushing a pair of boots like his towards her. "It would be better with the entire suit, but I don't have a room here in the ship for you to change."

Allura grabbed the floating boots, put them on and put her feet on the ground. She hear a snap and suddenly felt like her feet were made of lead. She got off the chair and walked around, getting used to the feeling.

"It's strange knowing that there's no gravity and yet my feet are anchored to the ground like it were. You said that the ship didn't have a gravity generator when you got it. Are they too big for it?"

"Not exactly; many pilots do buy gravity generators for their ships, but some, like me, know that those things aren't exactly small and occupy space that would be better for more practical things like a SRV or a bed, or just have space to walk on. Now come on, you can only see outside from the cockpit."

The pair walked (Allura with some hesitation) to the cockpit. When Allura arrived there, she couldn't help herself and gasped in awe when he saw the inmensity of space and the shining stars illuminating the cosmos.

"Woah..."

"Yeah, incredible for those who see space for the first time. Or at least for the first time after 10.000 frozen." Replied Erik. "Well, you can still sightsee while I make sure that the Imps that came with me are in Elysium."

"Imps, Elysium? What do you mean?" Asked Allura while Erik flied the ship away from the planet.

"The ship that I destroyed before the vortex appeared. Its remains came alongside mine and I need to see if there are any survivors, and if there are wipe them out, especially if the Tevarin is one of them."

"What!?" Exclaimed Allura, horrified. "If there are survivors whe should help them!"

"Allura, I pretty much doubt there are actual survivors; I'm going there just to see if the debris is still there or floated away. And besides, those assholes got it coming: they were Achenar, Achenar practice slavery and a long time ago conquered their modern territory by either offers or force, and the last ones usually ended with... well, you don't need to know. And I'm not sure if they have really stopped conquering systems."

What Allura (who was quite disturbed by the deliberate lack of information from Erik's part) didn't know was that Erik was quite biased against the Achenar Empire: sure, they practiced slavery, but most of those slaves were imperial citizens that had lost their honor and wanted to restore it with indebted servitude, or criminals, and all of them were well treated by their owners, many of whom offering them freedom in exchange for money (and even then any children the slave could have was automatically free, so many citizens of the empire could boast of having slaves as ancestors with pride). As for the conquer part, the Empire was right now on a Pax, happy with the territory they had and not planning on taking more.

As for _why_ Erik didn't like the Achenars... that's for later.

A couple minutes of flying in space later and the Eagle was floating amongst white-colored, metallic debris... and corpses of former imperial crewmen.

"Well, what do you know, the remains didn't float away and there ARE bodies."

Allura turned green and gagged; Erik, knowing that she was about throw up, gave her a plastic bag.

"If you want to puke, do it in the bag and quickly, or else It'll stick to your face."

Allura nodded and grabbed the bag, throwing up on it, and closing it so that her breakfast couldn't float around.

"This is disgusting..."

"What, the puking or the fact that I don't care about a bunch of corpses."

"Both. How can you be calm with the bodies of fellow humans around you?"

"Well princess, most of those 'fellow humans' have-correction, had slaves back home, and frankly the Empire has done things that could make Zarkon have a stroke. Dunno if it would be of horror or envy though. Also, they were imperials and I am from the Pilots Federation, that's a huge difference. Remember that I told you guys that there are three human factions where I come from. Heck, there is a Xi'an Republic, a Banu Union of Workers independent of the Republic, and a Vanduul Khanate, plus all the factions of minor species."

Allura frowned, but she didn't say anything. Erik

"Welp none of them are alive. Let's go min... Ohoho."

"What is it?" Asked Allura, hoping that it wasn't an imperial that amazingly survived. Judging by the way he spoke about them, he'd probably kill them with the plasma cannon of the ship.

"Looks like I won't have to mine for some time. Look over there, below that fighter."

"Where? I can't see anything."

"Oh right, forgot I have the helmet on."

Right where Erik was pointing floated a 10x10 feet white container (the size of a large SRV, definitely bigger than Erik's) that had 'TRIGINTA MILLIMETER' painted on it.

"You see that? That's Imperial for 'thirty millimeters', and a container of that sizes holds over ten thousand shells, enough for me to last several fights."

"Are you sure the ammunition of that box is compatible with your cannons?"

"The guns of each factions are different from each other, but the ammunition is universal." He then frowned. "Of course, I don't know why these guys had a container full of shells when all the stuff they threw at me was either plasma, missiles or laser. I supposse I shouldn't look a ravager gift in the jaw though, so I'm keeping it."

He flied the ship towards the container and opened the cargo scoop, bringing the container inside the craft.

"Well, that's it for today; I'll mine asteroid when the new reserves start going low. Let's head back to Arus."

With that he started the ship and flied it towards the planet. He'll mine another day.

While in the ship, Allura couldn't remembered that she didn't ask Erik something until know.

"Erik, can I ask you something?"

"What about?"

"Remember yesterday, after you and the Paladins came back from destroying Sendak's ship and Hunk made us... you know?"

"Yeah, that boy would have a heart attack if he saw the Keepstar or psionics. Well, what do you want to talk about?"

"Why are your pupils red?"

Erik looked at the princess strangely when she said that. Truth be told, not many people had ever asked about the colour of his eyes, and he always told them a lie instead of the truth.

"Well, nobody has ever asked me about them, but that's probably because nobody either looked at them closely or cared about the colour."

"And how did your pupils turn red?"

"Well, they didn't exactly turn red: I was passing the night in a bar on a station, I was drunk on my ass and thought that I could beat a 8 feet tall brute that insulted my profession with just my fists."

"And so you lost and ended with wounded eyes."

"Actually I won and he ended with his lower jaw missing, but yes, both of my eyes got ruptured during the fight and blood seeped inside my eyeballs, don't ask me how. The damage was easily repaired, but I thought that the bloodied pupils looked neat. Besides, it was free and didn't have to pay for dying them."

"I don't think that's healthy."

"Frankly I don't either, but that happened years ago and I don't feel weird. Well, now it's your turn."

"My turn?" Said Allura puzzled. "Turn of what?"

"Of telling something that happened in your life." Allura threw him a look. "What? I already told you something about me, and you said yesterday that we should try to know more of each other."

"Well, before we got to stasis..." And Allura began telling him pieces of her life before the fall or Altea, entertaining him until they flied back to Arus, where the two told the rest of the team what happened in space (and dissappointing Hunk and Pidge because).

Of course, she made sure to not make any reference to 'flesh' or 'alien'.

* * *

 **And done. I know it's definitely not as good as the first chapter, but chapters about daily life and simple talking (plus nightmares and secrets) aren't my forte. On the other hand, I managed to intruduce other three games to the multicrossover. Cookies for those what games are those.**

 **Furthermore, this chapter demonstrates that Erik has flaws. He comes from a universe where humans, as a whole, are the most powerful species in the known galaxy (although I'll on that elaborate later, need to make a more informative context for that), and he's also biased towars Imperials and Vanduul (also elaborate later, but the sword he has is related to the first).**

 **Well, that's it. 'til the next chapter people!**


End file.
